Cast-as-Intended Mechanism with Return Codes Based on PETs

We propose a method providing cast-as-intended verifiability for remote electronic voting. The method is based on plaintext equivalence tests (PETs), used to match the cast ballots against the pre-generated encrypted code tables. Our solution provides an attractive balance of security and functional properties. It is based on well-known cryptographic building blocks and relies on standard cryptographic assumptions, which allows for relatively simple security analysis. Our scheme is designed with a built-in fine-grained distributed trust mechanism based on threshold decryption. It, finally, imposes only very little additional computational burden on the voting platform, which is especially important when voters use devices of restricted computational power such as mobile phones. At the same time, the computational cost on the server side is very reasonable and scales well with the increasing ballot size

A Protocol for Cast-as-Intended Verifiability with a Second Device

Numerous institutions, such as companies, universities, or non-governmental organizations, employ Internet voting for remote elections. Since the main purpose of an election is to determine the voters' will, it is fundamentally important to ensure that the final election result correctly reflects the voters' votes. To this end, modern secure Internet voting schemes aim for what is called end-to-end verifiability. This fundamental security property ensures that the correctness of the final result can be verified, even if some of the computers or parties involved are malfunctioning or corrupted. A standard component in this approach is so called cast-as-intended verifiability which enables individual voters to verify that the ballots cast on their behalf contain their intended choices. Numerous approaches for cast-as-intended verifiability have been proposed in the literature, some of which have also been employed in real-life Internet elections. One of the well established approaches for cast-as-intended verifiability is to employ a second device which can be used by voters to audit their submitted ballots. This approach offers several advantages - including support for flexible ballot/election types and intuitive user experience - and it has been used in real-life elections, for instance in Estonia. In this work, we improve the existing solutions for cast-as-intended verifiability based on the use of a second device. We propose a solution which, while preserving the advantageous practical properties sketched above, provides tighter security guarantees. Our method does not increase the risk of vote-selling when compared to the underlying voting protocol being augmented and, to achieve this, it requires only comparatively weak trust assumptions. It can be combined with various voting protocols, including commitment-based systems offering everlasting privacy

Foot-Operated Device for Controlling the Flow of Water into Plumbing Fixtures

For so many years the use of the hand - operated valve has been in existence for use to control water flow into plumbing fixtures. This research report outlines attempts to solve the problems arising from hand recontamination associated with the existing means of water flow using manual control valves and the harbouring and breeding of germs related to the automatic faucet by designing a device to be controlled by foot for regulating water flow into the plumbing fixtures. This device can be adopted for use in places like homes, hostels, schools, offices, restaurants, healthcare centres and other public places in general.The design employs the use of a helical compressive spring (under varying loads) as the major component for keeping the plug of the valve and the pedal of the actuator (both linked by a control rope) in position instead of the screw as employed in the hand - operated valves, as the main principle of operation.The maximum input force accommodated by the actuator in order to open the valve at full port is 36 N for users of ages ranging from 15 years and above. Difficulties encountered (but solved) included sizing components and drawing. Keywords: Hand – operated; Valve; Control; Water; Flow; Plumbing fixture

PET ROBOT

The idea of the PET ROBOT is highly appropriate due to the r-apid changing technology in the modem world and the h\llllans changing ways of life. This teclmology could not only be the replacement for house pets but with detailed design and innovation it could be an assistant to humans at homes. Pet robot uses a microcontroller to control its functions. The micr{)controller will carry out instructions from the designed coding that is implemented to the microcontroller. Coding is designed and compiled using PIC Programming software. Different types of sensors are placed to the robot to give it intelligence. The pet robot will be not only be able to move forward, backward and tum but with the ability to 'see' by implementing sensol'S, the r{)bot is also able to avoid object obstacles along the way. Besides that, the robot can react to certain external input such as performing certain functions when it detects light and can react to sound. The project work requires both mechanical field for movement and electrical field for contr{)lling the r{)bot

A right to roam? A trans-species approach to understanding cathuman relations and social discourses associated with freeroaming urban cats (Felis catus)

This thesis employs thematic discourse analysis to elucidate prominent themes and points of contention associated with roaming cats (Felis catus). The data comprised 2476 online user comments responding to content related to roaming cats, 75 qualitative survey responses, 771 Facebook responses, and biographies reconstructed from eight case studies of cat-human relationships. These reflect broader social discourses surrounding more-than-human animals and human governance over other animals. Notions of guardian (owner) responsibilities are underpinned by different perceptions of companion cats (pets), ranging from childlike dependents who need to be protected and ‘parented’ to wild-like animals whose confinement would be morally wrong. Comments reveal how discourses from scientists, cat and wildlife advocacy groups, and the media are filtered through a local lens and often applied out of context. The data supports the notion that media reporting is instigating a moral panic over roaming cats by evoking emotive responses to predation by cats. These invariably become entangled within discourses related to cat safety, welfare, and complaints of ‘nuisance’ behaviours. Discourses surrounding cats in the community are further examined within a morethan- human biopolitical framework that describes how cohesive social mechanisms exert control over feline bodies through normalisation of practices such as desexing and confinement. Language was found to play a key role in biopolitical control by dominating the narrative of ‘responsible’ cat guardianship. Language is also central to moral panic theory, and the term ‘feral’ was shown to reinforce a ‘folk devil’ trope of free-living cats as transgressive and inherently different from companion cats. ‘Feral’ also invoked pity among those adamant cats need human love and care. However, cats are not without agency and can co-create meaning within a multispecies home or community. Case studies demonstrated cat-human intersubjectivity (joint meaning-making) and the various relationships formed between cats and non-feline animals (including human), both inside and outside of their homes

Unowned Cat Management in the State of Ohio: Elements of Best Practice in Public-Private Collaborative Efforts

A contentious debate over the management of free-roaming cat populations is ongoing. Nevertheless, disparate groups of stakeholders share a common goal of fewer community cats. Unowned cat management typically necessitates a choice between utilization of lethal or non-lethal measures. Research has indicated strong public support for employment of non-lethal methods, like trap-neuter-return (TNR). Collaborative TNR programs are experiencing success in a growing number of communities. The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify new or underutilized public-private collaborative practices, and associated elemental factors, that have the potential to be used as—or incorporated into—templates of best practice for the non-lethal management of unowned cats in Ohio. An additional objective was to uncover impediments to the implementation of collaborative programs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders as part of a qualitative approach. Participants representing ten humane societies/shelters, four county animal control agencies, a TNR-cat rescue group and a municipal government located in various parts of Ohio were interviewed over an eight-week period. A prevailing willingness on the part of stakeholders to collaborate and widespread support for non-lethal methods of unowned cat control were discovered. Moreover, a majority of stakeholders cited access to low-cost spay-neuter surgeries as essential to the initiation of TNR programs; multiple participants described lack of nearby access to such services as an impediment to conducting TNR. In addition, local ordinances preventing TNR were cited as substantial hindrances. Overall, significant potential within Ohio for expansion of collaborative non-lethal management programs for community cats seems to exist. Mitigation of impediments uncovered in this study will likely play an important role in leveraging this opportunity

Unowned Cat Management in the State of Ohio: Elements of Best Practice in Public-Private Collaborative Efforts

A contentious debate over the management of free-roaming cat populations is ongoing. Nevertheless, disparate groups of stakeholders share a common goal of fewer community cats. Unowned cat management typically necessitates a choice between utilization of lethal or non-lethal measures. Research has indicated strong public support for employment of non-lethal methods, like trap-neuter-return (TNR). Collaborative TNR programs are experiencing success in a growing number of communities. The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify new or underutilized public-private collaborative practices, and associated elemental factors, that have the potential to be used as—or incorporated into—templates of best practice for the non-lethal management of unowned cats in Ohio. An additional objective was to uncover impediments to the implementation of collaborative programs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders as part of a qualitative approach. Participants representing ten humane societies/shelters, four county animal control agencies, a TNR-cat rescue group and a municipal government located in various parts of Ohio were interviewed over an eight-week period. A prevailing willingness on the part of stakeholders to collaborate and widespread support for non-lethal methods of unowned cat control were discovered. Moreover, a majority of stakeholders cited access to low-cost spay-neuter surgeries as essential to the initiation of TNR programs; multiple participants described lack of nearby access to such services as an impediment to conducting TNR. In addition, local ordinances preventing TNR were cited as substantial hindrances. Overall, significant potential within Ohio for expansion of collaborative non-lethal management programs for community cats seems to exist. Mitigation of impediments uncovered in this study will likely play an important role in leveraging this opportunity

Voting on the internet

We address some of the challenges in achieving internet voting for real world elections. One challenge is that home-based computers are likely to be infected by malware, threatening both the integrity and privacy of the vote. Another concern is the possibility that a voter may be coerced to vote in a particular way, for example by a family member or organised crime ring. Moreover, any voting system intended to be used on a large scale should not require complex operations by voters whose purpose is hard to understand. We introduce a series of novel proposals for internet voting, presented across three parts. First we examine how the problem of malware-infected computers in internet voting could be solved. We propose to use a dedicated hardware token (which is not required to be trustworthy) that helps remove the need to trust the voting computer and the server. Second we examine how the outcome verification methods provided by internet voting can be made more intuitive. We show how using trial votes help voters achieve more intuitive verifiability. Third we examine how the tension between verifiability and incoercibility can be reconciled while maintaining the usability of the voting systems. We propose a new property which we call “coercion-evidence” that helps improve usability, reduce trust assumptions, while maintaining the security of the system

The transgressive mouth in live art and its relationship to the audience.

The relationship between audience, site and artwork has been explored through this thesis, which analyses the effect of my performances on the audience. These performances, which provide the empirical research, identify ways in which the behaviour of the human mouth appears transgressive and abject when viewed at close proximity. Specifically, this is enacted through a series of considerations concerned with the performer and their presence, and orality. Orality is used here to define the significant role the mouth plays in the categorisation of acceptable and unacceptable human behaviour in this research. The condensed oral experiments that constituted the ritual of this practice, included acts such as spitting, licking and sucking. These situated my performing body as ‘woman’, as ‘transgressor’, and as one positioned as ‘other’ to the audience by her actions. Through an examination of the effect of these performances, this thesis explains and analyses the connections between performer and activity, between performer and audience, between animal and human, and the context of site and social relations. It articulates and accounts for the performance methodology by critically addressing the concerns they are engaged with. The artworks discussed are acts that set up spaces of transgression, interrogation and reflection, aiming, thereby, to subvert the observer’s benign neutrality. The thesis concludes by claiming that evaluative observation of the performing self and her effect on her observers is made explicit and understandable as a dynamic part of these performances. It acknowledges the role of the audience, when placed close to it, as integral and implicit to the work. The conclusions drawn develop the debate and understanding of the relationship between audience, site and artwork in live art practice that includes female and animal bodies, and this gives it significance